MOHAMED KHEIDER

University of Biskra

Master One
Research Methodology
Syllabus
Section of English, Faculty of Letters and Foreign Languages
Dr. HOADJLI Ahmed Chaouki 2020/2021
Lecture Six:
Theme 3, Sections: 6 to 11

I. Content:

1. How to Conduct the Review of Literature?

2. Some Hints for the Review of Literature
3. Precautions in Library Use
4. Reporting the Review of Literature
5. Let's Wrap-up!
a. Questions and Answers
b. Discussion/ Debate
6. Let's Practice!
a. Written Feedback
b. Assessment

1. How to Conduct the Review of Literature

To conduct the review of literature, the researcher should go through these stages:
Stage 1: Try to gain some impression of what the source is about; what a question or
questions the author is trying to answer; how the source is structured, and whether, in fact,
the questions tackled and the answers put forward are relevant to your needs.
Stage 2: If you decide that the source is relevant to your research subject, then you must
formulate the question or questions you anticipate will be answered in the source. This
enables you to locate the required information and will save you time and effort as you cannot
afford to go reading aimlessly through the source. At this stage, you must adopt an active and
analytical attitude.
Stage 3: After formulating the main question or questions that you anticipate the source will
answer, you must review the source to look for answer for your questions. This involves locating
the parts of the source where your questions are dealt with. You must then look for the answers or
conclusions that the author has drawn, and also at how the author arrived at them.
Stage 4: Supposing that you have extracted the relevant information from the written
report, you must now record your data in note form, so that later you can retrieve it and use it
easily at the appropriate stage (Walliman, 2001).

Dr. Hoadjli A. C., English Section. 2020/2021© 27

2. Some Hints for the Review of Literature

Some miscellaneous hints are provided here on how to review the literature. These
concern mainly:
• To realise that reviewing the literature is essentially the library phase of the project,
and so we must become thoroughly conversant not only with the way in which
libraries in general function, classify, and catalogue, but also with the way in which
the specific library in which we work does these things.

• To recognise that there are only two criteria for good bibliographic research; accuracy
and consistency. Therefore, from the very beginning of the review of literature, it is
sound practice to begin recording the essential information accurately and exactly in
the same way.

• To copy direct quotations and note the page number of the book or journal on which it
appears because this will be needed in referring to the quotation.

3. Precautions in Library Use

The following precautions are to be taken in the use of library for review of literature:
• Avoid intellectual dishonesty.

• Guard against being conditioned by the view point of an earlier researcher and the
temptation of blindly following his/her procedure.

• Merely listing of previous studies without reviewing them or giving their

characteristics is not enough.

• It is always helpful to arrange the previous studies in chronological order so that the
growth of the field is clearly known to the researcher as well as to the readers.

• A researcher should have a good grasp of library procedures which will help him/her
to locate books and references needed by him/her without wasting most of time and
energy. This process can be classified into two categories:

(a) Preliminary Reading: For the bird's eye view of the whole thing.
(b) Critical Thinking: The references and material which seem useful as a result
of preliminary reading are noted down and are read critically and serious
evaluation of the available data and information.

Dr. Hoadjli A. C., English Section. 2020/2021© 28

4. Reporting Review of Literature

Generally, the review of literature is reported in the second chapter of the dissertation.
The following procedure should be followed in reporting it:
• the research should go through collected research studies of the field;

• the researcher should try to relate the collected research studies with his/her own
study; and

• at the end, the researcher should show that his/her study is a derivation from the
other studies.

The reporting review of literature makes the research study very specific and up-
to-date. It is an essential part in writing a dissertation.

Dr. Hoadjli A. C., English Section. 2020/2021© 29